Certain beverage or food preparation machines use capsules containing ingredients to be extracted or to be dissolved; for other machines, the ingredients are stored and dosed automatically in the machine or else are added at the time of preparation of the drink.
Most coffee machines possess filling means that include a pump for liquid, usually water, which pumps the liquid from a source of water that is cold or indeed heated through heating means, such as a heating resistor, a thermoblock or the like.
For allowing the user to interact with such machines, for providing operation instructions to the machine or obtaining feed-back therefrom, various systems have been disclosed in the art, for instance as mentioned in the following references: AT 410 377, CH 682 798, DE 44 29 353, DE 10 2005 057 166, DE 20 2005 002 814, DE 20 2006 019 039, EP 1 448 084, EP 1 676 509, EP 1 707 088, EP 08 155 851.2, FR 2 624 844, FR 2 858 713, GB 2 397 510, GB 2 240 206, U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,385, U.S. Pat. No. 4,377,049, U.S. Pat. No. 4,458,735, U.S. Pat. No. 4,554,419, U.S. Pat. No. 4,767,632, U.S. Pat. No. 4,954,697, U.S. Pat. No. 5,312,020, U.S. Pat. No. 5,335,705, U.S. Pat. No. 5,372,061, U.S. Pat. No. 5,375,508, U.S. Pat. No. 5,645,230, U.S. Pat. No. 5,731,981, U.S. Pat. No. 5,836,236, U.S. Pat. No. 5,927,553, U.S. Pat. No. 5,959,869, U.S. Pat. No. 6,182,555, U.S. Pat. No. 6,354,341, U.S. Pat. No. 6,759,072, U.S. Pat. No. 7,028,603, U.S. Pat. No. 7,270,050, U.S. Pat. No. 7,279,660, U.S. Pat. No. 7,350,455, US 2007/0157820, WO 97/25634, WO 99/50172, WO 03/037151, WO 03/039309, WO 2004/030435, WO 2004/030438, WO 2006/063645, WO 2006/082064, WO 2006/090183, WO 2007/003062, WO 2007/003990, WO 2008/104751 and PCT/EP08/054,858.
In particular, in AT 410 377 a touch screen is inter alia used in a beverage machine to provide a feed-back of values measured in the machine by using sensors, such as the temperature of a beverage or a supply pressure including the use of a red-green signal. EP 1 448 084 and WO 03/037151 disclose a beverage machine with a display that inter alia indicates in a corner the statement “Warming up. Please wait!” when in its start-up mode. Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 4,767,632 discloses a beverage machine with a display adapted to display an error message, such as “COFFEE MILL DEFECTIVE”, “RESERVOIR EMPTY”, “WATER TANK EMPTY” or “PUMP DEFECTIVE”. U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,385 discloses a beverage machine having a lamp that is switched on while the machine's heater is being powered. DE 20 2005 002 814 discloses an interface of a washing machine or drier that has a display with a series of through-openings for allowing the passage of light from behind in order to form letters or numbers or text on the display. GB 2 240 206 discloses a washing machine or a cooker with a control panel having selector members and a display that is arranged to display graphic and/or numeric symbols of an operating program to be performed. FR 2 858 713 discloses a washing machine with a two figure seven-segment display and a turn-button associated with letters A to H and associated indicator light segments.
EP 1 707 088 discloses a full automatic coffee machine having a coffee grinder, a used ground coffee receptacle and a display or an indicator lamp to indicate that to the user when the receptacle is full and must be emptied. The disclosed display is generally square and has a height that makes up half of the height and a third of the width of an upper user-interface panel of the machine. The publication is silent as to the sign appearing on the display for indicating that the receptacle is full. However, the particular machine disclosed in the illustration of this publication has been commercialised by KRUPS under the designation “Espresseria Automatic EA8260”. According to the French user-manual of this machine, when the receptacle needs to be emptied, this display displays an icon symbolising the removal of the receptacle and a drip tray together with the French text “Vider les 2 bacs”, i.e. “Empty the 2 receptacles”. As further disclosed in the user-manual, various further icons and associated text messages are displayed on the display in relation with different events.
DE 10 2005 057 166 discloses a fridge or deep freezer with a user-interface. The interface includes a horizontal series of aligned buttons, each button being associated with a LED indicator located above the button and indicating a state with the function associated with the corresponding button.
GB 2 397 510 discloses a coffee machine with a series of indicator LEDs, one of which may be used to indicate a low water level in the machine's tank. A similar interface arrangement is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,836,236 and in WO 2008/104751.
There is still a need to provide liquid food or beverage machines with a user-interface that has greater ergonomics and user-friendliness to facilitate acquisition by a user of information communicated to him/her by the machine.